Thunderpants
Thunderpants (also spelt thUnderpants) was a heavyweight robot which entered Series 7 of Robot Wars, the final entry from Team Panda. The robot never fought on the televised show, as its drive belts slipped while entering the arena for its first-round battle, leaving it immobile in its entry gate. Thunderpants could not be repaired in time, and was eliminated before the battle began. An interview with the team was filmed, but was not shown on the televised show, nor were the robot's statistics displayed. Thunderpants was named after the film of the same name, due to the fact that Pete Collier's and Steve Bracewell's daughters Megan and Amelie were huge fans. Design Thunderpants was a low invertible box-shaped robot armed with a sledgehammer. Thunderpants was constructed using the base of its predecessor Hot Pants as a template. The hammer featured a rather unique mechanism which enabled it to move both up and down from its starting point, allowing Thunderpants to attack an opponent with its hammer even when inverted. Qualification In its Series 7 qualifierVideo of Thunderpants' Series 7 qualifier, Thunderpants fought M2, King B Powerworks and Pressure. It got off to a slow start, and King B Powerworks slammed it into the arena wall. Thunderpants was still driving, but as it moved into the centre of the arena, M2 flipped Pressure directly onto the top of it, and King B Powerworks pressed into the side of it, causing terminal damage to Thunderpants' wheel. M2 flipped it over, and Thunderpants was left alone, immobile. Despite this, Thunderpants was offered a discretionary place in the series alongside the victorious M2 and King B Powerworks, although the damage sustained to Thunderpants' wheel would prove to be its downfall in Series 7. Team Wind Power, creators of Pressure, state that Thunderpants was selected for the series because of Team Panda's comedic costumes. Robot History Series 7 Thunderpants appeared in Heat E of the Seventh Wars, where it was due to fight newcomers Leveller 2, veterans Tetanus Booster and previous series Heat Finalists Barber-Ous 2'n a Bit in its first-round battle. However, while entering the arena, the robot's drive belts came loose as a result of the damage sustained in its qualifier, leaving Thunderpants immobilised at the entry gate. Despite attempts by Team Panda to return its drive belts into position, Thunderpants could not be repaired in time, and remained immobile inside the entry gate. As a result, it was red-carded by Refbot before the battle was about to start, and eliminated from the Seventh Wars without having entered the arena. Thunderpants' melee went ahead without it. Eventually, Leveller 2 and Tetanus Booster would progress to the second round following the immobilisation of Barber-Ous 2'n a Bit, which was eliminated along with Thunderpants. Results |} Series Record Trivia *In the edited version of the Seventh Wars shown on Jetix and Fox Kids, all of the robots' introductions were removed to cut the show to 30 minutes. Thunderpants was the sole exception due to it not making the arena. References Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots that never made it into the Arena Category:Robots from West Sussex Category:Robots with Hammers Category:Invertible Robots Category:Robots with names based on film and television Category:Robots which debuted in Series 7 Category:Robots which lost their only battle Category:Robots which only fought in Series 7